


Preparations

by itsamagicalplace



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 00:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2248767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsamagicalplace/pseuds/itsamagicalplace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several years after S.H.I.E.L.D has been rebuilt from the ashes, Phil and Melinda finally decide to tie the knot</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preparations

She’d opted for a simple dress. Melinda May didn’t do fancy. She didn’t want anything obnoxious and frilly with lace and netting. She simply wanted something elegant. Simple, without any fuss. A bit like the ceremony really. Although the fact Skye had been involved in the planning still concerned her slightly. At any moment she was expecting something to happen which she had no idea about. That was the kind of thing Skye would do.

She had chosen a dress made of a pearlescent silk, shimmering white as it caught in the sunlight drifting through the window. It was strapless, with a sweet-heart neckline, tight to her waist, where it then draped down her legs to the ground. It didn’t trail behind her much at all either, maybe only a couple of centimetres, but she loved it. In all honesty, she hadn’t expected to fall in love with a wedding dress like this. Ever. She’d never been the girlie type, and she felt much more comfortable in her leather jacket and boots.

But, a few weeks back, her and Natasha had managed to get a day away from S.H.I.E.L.D duties – after the team had relocated to Stark tower, Natasha had become a prominent person in her life once more. Melinda had missed her, and she didn’t realise how much so until they began working together again. They were so similar, both fighting for what they thought was right, both with chequered pasts but still fighting for the greater good – or what they believed to be the greater good anyway.

Rather than spending the day doing some training, as Melinda had hoped, instead Natasha had dragged her into the nearest city, where they proceeded to spend a good eight hours straight visiting various shops. She had almost given up – every dress was too ruffled or had too much lace or was a weird shape or fussy or something else – when at the back of a rail she had noticed the sleek shape of the dress she now wore. She’d pulled it out in silence, and Natasha had simply replied with one word: Yes. Melinda didn’t even want to try it on, but at Natasha’s insistence she had, and as she stood to look at her reflection in the ceiling-height mirror, she’d felt a weird excited feeling building in her chest. She knew one-hundred percent that this was the dress she was going to marry Phil Coulson in. They had bought it there and then.

She didn’t have a veil; she neither wanted one nor needed one. Again, she saw it an unnecessary. The original purpose of a wedding veil was for it to hide the bride’s face as she entered. But after all, they were already agents of what had been labelled as a terrorist organisation, despite how much work Phil had done over the last few years building it back up. She spent her life hiding – she wasn’t going to spend her wedding day hiding as well.

Skye had managed to convince her to let her do her hair for her.

May sat staring at the reflection in the mirror in front of her, and watched the younger girl gently plait various strands of her ebony hair back and interlace them with the occasional small white flower. Melinda had opted to keep her hair down, mainly to keep things easy and fuss-free, but even with that Skye had insisted she do something else with it. So, it was now filled with gentle flowing waves, and Skye was styling it for her. Usually, this would annoy her, but today it was quite nice.

Looking back, May knew that Skye had been the most supportive of her and Phil marrying; whilst the whole team had been happy for them, Skye seemed to see it as “mom and dad getting married”, and she had quietly told May a few weeks ago that it felt like they were all a proper family. She couldn’t help but smile at the memory of telling her.

_“So, as you all know -” Phil had started one evening, having first gathered the members of their team together in the small lounge area of the BUS, “- myself and May have been together for a while now, and whilst it has in the past been deemed irresponsible and/or against the rules, we have decided that, what the hell, we are going to rock the boat even further.”_

_He’d glanced over at May with a smile, which she returned with warmth in her eyes. “We are going to get married.”_

_Skye had leapt from her seat in excitement. “You’re getting married?!” the hacker had practically screamed with delight at the news. “Oh my god I’m so happy for you both! You totally deserve it!”_

_Fitz had smiled and offered quiet congratulations – the incident with the pod and the ocean had left him much more subdued and introverted than he had used to be, but he was still pleased for them. Jemma had squealed and had actually hugged both May and Phil, both to their surprise and delight. Trip had simply grinned and shook Phil’s hand._

Melinda had been filled with relief that they all seemed to take it so well. She knew as well as Phil did, that this was an unprecedented thing within S.H.I.E.L.D, and their little team had been stretched to the limit many times in recent months. She wasn’t sure they would like what they were planning to do. But then again, with Phil running things now, he could technically make up his own rules about inter-team relationships. And they were together anyway, so what harm could a wedding do?

It had been mostly down to Phil’s desire for a proper wedding ceremony that they were doing this anyway. Melinda had been married before, and whilst she adored Phil, it would not have concerned her if they hadn’t had the big service. But he had wanted something special. And so they were here.

Before, S.H.I.E.L.D had been run by Fury, and Phil and Melinda had abode with the rules about relationships. For the most part anyway. They weren’t sure if anyone knew about all the times they had slept together following missions, in various hotel rooms across the world, or all the stolen kisses they had taken whilst undercover (really, they often took complete advance of that, kissing and touching each other in ways they would not usually have gotten away with). But now that Phil was director, he genuinely didn’t see the issue with it. As long as that relationship would not endanger the lives of innocent people whilst out on a mission for example, then he saw no problem.

Brides were usually stressed out on their wedding day. All the preparation, the dresses, the hair, the make-up, the venue, the guests, the food, everything. But May felt, well, in all honesty, she felt relaxed. She had an anxious-excited feeling building inside her, but she wasn’t stressed. Working in S.H.I.E.L.D had taught her to live each day as it came, and to not worry about the insignificant. So she hadn’t.

They had invited only a select few guests – their team were there of course. Maria Hill was also there, alongside Natasha, plus she’d dragged Pepper + Tony Stark along. Phil had somehow roped Steve Rogers into being his best man. May had rolled her eyes fondly when he’d told her; he was practically bouncing around in excitement. She was marrying such a dork.

They were so different, her and Phil. She was tough, she kicked ass, she’d killed more people than she even wanted to consider. She had darkness within her that she never wanted to expose again. He was a dork. He was kind and considerate; he was patient with her and helped her work through her pain. She calmed him down when he got stressed out, and he comforted her through her nightmares. They were anchors to each other.

Skye finished her hair.

Melinda reached out and picked up a slim silver chain from the dresser in front of her. Dangling from it was a small jade carving. She swallowed hard as she fastened it around her neck, and tried not to let the brimming tears wash her mascara away. It had been her mother’s necklace.

Phil had pulled her away from the darkness that threatened to drown her when she lost her mother. She’d felt herself sinking back into the oblivion of despair she never wanted to be in again, and Phil had stayed with her always, often just his presence making things seem slightly more acceptable. Her mother would have loved to have been here, May knew that. She had been strict, and she had been beyond upset when Melinda had broken off her first marriage – it had been arranged and she had never been happy. But one day she had decided that she was going to put herself first, and she had never looked back. After everything, her mother wanted her to be happy though, she had accepted that in the end.

Her death had changed Melinda in a way she could never have foreseen. Everything she had worked for in keeping her emotions at bay seemed to have been reversed. Phil had found her crying, and had known immediately that something had happened. Since then, she’d laughed, she had wept, she had felt.

She didn’t feel as inclined to hold herself back any more emotionally. She was free. It was scary, but she knew it was right.

Neither of them now had a family to fall back on. But they had each other, and they had their team. And most of the time, it was enough.


End file.
